Såg ni inte toppen? Jo, det gjorde vi.

In Swedish, jo is used to contradict a negative question or negative statement.

So in Såg ni inte toppen? the speaker is asking Didn’t you see the peak/top?
If the answer is affirmative, Swedish normally uses jo, not ja:

• Jo = Yes, we did
• Ja would sound wrong here in standard Swedish, because the question is negative

This is one of the most important uses of jo.

Swedish often avoids repeating the main verb in short answers. Instead, it uses göra in a way similar to English do.

So:

• Såg ni inte toppen?
• Jo, det gjorde vi.

means something like:

• Didn’t you see the peak?
• Yes, we did.

English also does this: we do not usually say Yes, we saw on its own; we say Yes, we did. Swedish works similarly here.

You could repeat the full verb in a longer answer, for example:

• Jo, vi såg toppen.

But the short-answer pattern with det gjorde vi is very common and natural.

Here, det does not mean that the speaker is referring to a neuter noun. It stands for the whole action or situation: seeing the peak.

So det gjorde vi is roughly we did that or more naturally we did.

This is why det is used even though toppen is an en word.
The det is not agreeing with toppen. It refers to the whole idea of what was asked.

Swedish main clauses normally follow the V2 rule, which means the finite verb comes in the second position.

In det gjorde vi:

1. det is in the first position
2. gjorde must come second
3. vi comes after it

This order is especially common in short replies of this kind.

• Det gjorde vi = the natural short-answer pattern
• Vi gjorde det is possible in other contexts, but it sounds less like the standard direct reply here and more like we did it

So for this sentence, Jo, det gjorde vi is the idiomatic choice.

Because it is a yes/no question.

In Swedish, yes/no questions usually have the finite verb first:

• Såg ni toppen? = Did you see the peak?

Compare that with a statement:

• Ni såg toppen. = You saw the peak.

So the verb-first order tells you that this is a question.

In a main-clause yes/no question, the usual order is:

finite verb + subject + sentence adverb

So:

• Såg = finite verb
• ni = subject
• inte = sentence adverb

That gives:

• Såg ni inte toppen?

This is normal Swedish word order.

A learner might expect Såg inte ni toppen?, but that would usually give extra emphasis, something like Wasn’t it you who saw the peak? or Didn’t you, specifically, see the peak?

So Såg ni inte toppen? is the neutral version.

Toppen is the definite form of topp, which can mean top, peak, or summit, depending on context.

• en topp = a top / a peak
• toppen = the top / the peak

So the sentence is talking about a specific peak or top that both speaker and listener know about.

Also, learners may know toppen as a colloquial expression meaning great! or excellent!, but that is not the meaning here. Here it is the noun the peak/top.

Såg is the past tense of se, which means to see.

• se = to see
• ser = sees / see
• såg = saw
• sett = seen

It is an irregular verb, so the past tense is not something predictable like adding a regular ending.

Ni means you in the plural, so it is used when talking to more than one person.

In modern Swedish:

• du = you, singular
• ni = you, plural

Historically, Ni could also be used as a polite singular form, and sometimes it still is, but the default modern meaning is plural you.

So Såg ni inte toppen? most naturally means the speaker is addressing several people.

Yes. In conversation, Jo by itself can be a complete answer.

So all of these are possible:

• Jo.
• Jo, det gjorde vi.
• Jo, vi såg toppen.

The longer forms simply add clarity or emphasis. The short Jo is very common in everyday speech when the context is obvious.